Caddick fitness causes more concern

England's tour of Australia is in danger of becoming a farce after Andrew Caddick became the latest player to be struck down by injury and made doubtful for a Test match.

Caddick came off the field here with a back spasm during England's innings defeat in the second Test, which ended a day early on Sunday, and was sent for an MRI scan yesterday.

Relating the news of the scan, the England physiotherapist Kirk Russell said: "The scan has revealed long-standing wear and tear, consistent with a fast bowler of Andrew's age, which is continuing to cause him pain. He will have a steroid injection in Perth and his fitness will be re-assessed at nets on Wednesday. At this stage, he has not been ruled out of the third Test."

If Caddick's injection fails to do the trick in time for Friday's Test, the Somerset fast bowler will become the sixth player from England's strongest possible side to be excluded through injury. Athough Caddick has not shown the leadership qualities one would expect from a bowler with over 200 Test wickets to his name, his presence in Hussain's depleted side will be missed.

With the team becoming more unrecognisable each time they walk out on to the field, it already seems that England's resources have been stretched beyond breaking point.

Paul Collingwood yesterday became the fourth replacement to be called into England's Ashes squad following the news that John Crawley is unlikely to have recovered from an injury to his right hip in time to play in the third Test. The Durham batsman, who is a member of the England one-day party which assembles here today, arrived in Australia a couple of weeks ago in order to have some extra practice in Melbourne.

Such foresight seems to have worked out because, rather than prepare for the VB one-day series that starts on 13 December, he will now join the Test squad in Western Australia later today.

With Ashley Giles returning to England with a fractured wrist, Gareth Batty, the off-spinning all-rounder from Worcestershire, has been put on stand-by in case anything should happen to Richard Dawson in the lead up to the Test. While there may have been a temptation to look again at Robert Croft, such a decision makes sense because Batty is currently here in South Australia spending the winter at the National Academy.

Ironically, Batty is having a course of injections to correct a problem to his shoulder but they do not affect his ability to play. Yorkshire's Michael Vaughan is expected to recover in time from the blow on his shoulder he gained here.